Wednesday, July 20, 2016

Public Release: 18-May-2016
Immediate aspirin after mini-stroke substantially reduces risk of major stroke
Benefits of taking aspirin immediately after minor strokes have been underestimated
University of Oxford

Using aspirin urgently could substantially reduce the risk of major strokes in patients who have minor 'warning' events, a group of European researchers has found. Writing in the Lancet, the team say that immediate self-treatment when patients experience stroke-like symptoms would considerably reduce the risk of major stroke over the next few days.

Aspirin is already given to people who have had a stroke or transient ischaemic attack (TIA - often called a 'mini-stroke') to prevent further strokes after they have been assessed in hospital and in the longer-term, reducing the subsequent stroke risk by about 15%. However, based on a previous study in Oxford (the EXPRESS Study) the team suspected that the benefits of more immediate treatment with aspirin could be much greater.

Lead researcher Professor Peter Rothwell, a stroke expert from the University of Oxford, explained: 'The risk of a major stroke is very high immediately after a TIA or a minor stroke (about 1000 times higher than the background rate), but only for a few days. We showed previously in the 'EXPRESS Study' that urgent medical treatment with a 'cocktail' of different drugs could reduce the one-week risk of stroke from about 10% to about 2%, but we didn't know which component of the 'cocktail' was most important.'

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Dr Dale Webb, Director of Research and Information at the Stroke Association, said: 'A TIA is a medical emergency and urgent neurological assessment must always be sought. We welcome this research which shows that taking aspirin after TIA can dramatically reduce the risk and severity of further stroke. The findings suggest that anyone who has stroke symptoms, which are improving while they are awaiting urgent medical attention can, if they are able, take one dose of 300 mg aspirin.